Cadillac Automobile

A woman was buried Friday in the back of her beloved red 1976 Cadillac convertible--in 14 plots at Riverview Cemetery, funeral home officials said. Aurora Schuck, a native of Cuba, died Tuesday of cancer at age 62. "The casket is going to be placed on the back of the car. The top's down, so it will just be placed on that, across the back," a funeral home spokesman said. A construction company dug a grave large enough for the car.

Whether he was falling into or out of love, the late Ray Charles had a penchant for falling into Detroit's cars when he sang the blues. Charles favored Cadillac, the standard of motorized excellence in the 1950s when he began establishing his reputation as one of the world's greatest performers of blues and country music. To get his woman, he needed that car -- the symbol of wealth, the high-powered version of manhood.

In an unprecedented move, Cadillac has apologized to archrival Lincoln for fudging December sales numbers to maintain its coveted crown as the best-selling luxury brand for 1998. Historic segment leader Cadillac, skillfully zigging its way around the "L" word, said Wednesday that an internal audit showed that it "overstated" December sales by 4,773 vehicles. Initially, Cadillac had claimed the sales title by a scant 222 vehicles.

As Cadillac heads down the road, what kind of music is on the stereo? The GM luxury division's "Break Through" television ad campaign defibrillates viewers' hearts with Led Zeppelin's 1971 classic "Rock and Roll." Let us not kid ourselves. This ad campaign is aimed primarily at white boomers, affluent suburbanites as young as 44 and as old as, say, Robert Plant and Jimmy Page, rock gods who are spending entirely too much time in the bathroom.

In the retro-traditionalist 1980s, it was bound to happen. Tail fins are making a comeback of sorts. To be sure, they aren't the hideously sharp fins of the early 1960s. But modest, squared-off fins seem to be sprouting on the back ends of 1989 Cadillacs just the same. "I would say they certainly are not big fins in the way Cadillac had in the 1950s and 1960s, but they are leading in that direction," observes Chris Cedergren, a Cadillac historian as well as a market analyst with J. D.

Add a few extra inches here, a little more sheet metal there, throw in a hint of fender skirts and tail fins--and what happens? Cadillac makes a comeback. Last fall, Cadillac, desperate to recapture its traditional buyers who had fled to Lincoln and the imports after Cadillac had downsized its cars in the mid-1980s, introduced a new line of bigger, longer and, many would argue--gaudier--cars.

403,000 Cadillacs Recalled: General Motors Corp. is recalling Cadillac De Villes manufactured between 1991 and 1993 to replace a defective rubber oil hose that could create a fire risk. The company said the hose could separate from a connector and spill oil in the engine compartment. GM said it had reports of 27 fires related to the defect but no injuries. It said recall notices would be sent to owners over the next six to eight weeks.

General Motors Corp. said Monday that it will introduce U.S.-made Cadillacs to Britain for the first time next week, trying to capture a bigger share of the country's luxury automobile market. GM's British subsidiary, Vauxhall, hopes that the Cadillac Seville SLS and STS cars will take business away from Jaguar, the British car maker owned by U.S. rival Ford Motor Co., as well as Mercedes and BMW of Germany and the Lexus luxury cars made by Japan's Toyota.

AUTOS * General Motors Corp., the world's biggest auto maker, recalled about 280,000 Cadillac DeVille sedans from the 2000 to 2002 model years to fix seat belts that might not stay locked in a crash. The auto maker told the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that front lap or shoulder belt retractors may fail when the car slows more than 21 mph before a crash. No problems or injuries have been reported by owners, after failures were noted in crash tests as early as November 2000.

General Motors Corp.'s Cadillac luxury brand Wednesday topped a J.D. Power & Associates survey of customer satisfaction with their dealers, while its Saturn brand slumped from first to fifth. The world's largest automaker led the survey for the fourth straight year. Porsche moved up to second from eighth in the annual study by the Westlake Village-based research company. Cadillac was second in 2002. Ford Motor Co.'s Lincoln remained third and its Mercury brand rose to fourth from ninth.

AUTOS * General Motors Corp., the world's biggest auto maker, recalled about 280,000 Cadillac DeVille sedans from the 2000 to 2002 model years to fix seat belts that might not stay locked in a crash. The auto maker told the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that front lap or shoulder belt retractors may fail when the car slows more than 21 mph before a crash. No problems or injuries have been reported by owners, after failures were noted in crash tests as early as November 2000.

Cadillac, once the cream of the crop among luxury automobiles, has fallen far and fast: No. 1 just 2 1/2 years ago in U.S. luxury sales, it is No. 6 so far this year, trailing marques such as Mercedes-Benz, Lexus and Lincoln. To put a stop to the slide and, it hopes, boost Caddy back to the top of the heap, General Motors Corp. is spending nearly $4 billion in the next several years to polish its luxury line's image with a new fleet of cars and trucks.

Nostalgists best start stocking up on hankies: Detroit auto makers are getting ready to give the boot to two of the nation's biggest, and oldest, luxury car models. Say bye-bye to Cadillac's Eldorado, right, and Lincoln's Continental. The vehicles are victims of America's love, affair with sport-utility vehicles, changing market demographics, and political and economic pressures to improve fuel economy.

If you thought the $50,000 luxury SUV was the pinnacle of vehicular excess, just wait for the luxury pickup truck. Despite soaring gasoline prices and a weakening national economy, Lincoln and Cadillac both are preparing to launch ultra-luxury versions of the pickup, an American blue-collar icon. Ford Motor Co.'s Lincoln will lead the way with the Blackwood, due in dealerships late this summer. General Motors Corp.'s Cadillac plays catch-up in the first quarter of 2002 with the Escalade EXT.

General Motors Corp. today is expected to announce that it will build a $558-million Cadillac assembly plant in Lansing, Mich., scrapping a plan to use suppliers to make entire sections of cars. It would be GM's first North American plant since it conceived and built a Saturn factory in Tennessee in the mid-1980s. The plant, scheduled to open in 2001, will build more than 200,000 luxury vehicles a year and employ 1,500 workers within three years.

Luxury auto maker Cadillac may dump its crest-and-wreath logo, one of the most recognized symbols in the industry. General Manager John Smith said the trademark crest, first used in 1905, is not as forward-looking as some of the new vehicles Cadillac will be launching in coming years, particularly the Evoq roadster.

In an unprecedented move, Cadillac has apologized to archrival Lincoln for fudging December sales numbers to maintain its coveted crown as the best-selling luxury brand for 1998. Historic segment leader Cadillac, skillfully zigging its way around the "L" word, said Wednesday that an internal audit showed that it "overstated" December sales by 4,773 vehicles. Initially, Cadillac had claimed the sales title by a scant 222 vehicles.